San Jose weathered a physically dominating performance from the Philadelphia Flyers early to score single goals in the second and third periods en route to a 2-1 victory at HP Pavilion. With the win, the Sharks evened their numbers in the win and loss column for just the second time this season.

Rookie winger Jonathan Cheechoo scored the tie-breaking goal at 2:59 of the third period. With Roman Cechmanek hugging the near post, Cheechoo ripped a low shot from the bottom of the right circle on a line rush that deflected off the goalie's right pad and over the goal line before the off-balanced Flyer fell into the goal.

"I was really looking to pass to (Todd) Harvey, but that (option) closed up, " Cheechoo said. "I saw he (Cechmanek) was standing up so I just tried to shoot it at his feet."

Defenseman Scott Hannan started the sequence with an accurate cross-ice pass that sprung Cheechoo and San Jose on an odd-man break. The play typified the Sharks' night -- they had to be patient and they had to be perfect.

"Tonight we stayed patient and only took what they gave us," Hannan said. "He (Cheechoo) made a good play."

Coach Ron Wilson lauded the fourth-liners' efforts. It was Cheechoo who scored the game-tying goal against Chicago Saturday night.

"That's three big points he's got for us with two goals," Wilson said.

San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov stopped 24 of 25 shots to reach .500 for just the second time as well (12-12-4).

After a slow start to his season, which included one goal in 16 games and a near three-week trip to the minors, Cheechoo has points in four of the past five games and goals in three of them.

"They're going in right now, so I'm just trying to put them on net and hopefully they'll keep going in," Cheechoo said.

"He's one of those guys who just seems to have a knack," Wilson added. "It wasn't a real hard shot, but he has a way of finding the holes."

The Flyers dominated the opening 40 minutes, but one defensive mistake enabled the Sharks to score early in the second period. The game was tied 1-1 going into the third period with Philadelphia holding a 21-12 edge in shots.

Defenseman Bryan Marchment fed a breaking Selanne with a spin-around backhand pass just inside the San Jose blue line that sprung his teammate through center.

Philadelphia defenseman Kim Johnsson couldn't catch Selanne, who deked Cechmanek down with a move to his forehand and tucked the puck under the goalie's left pad for the equalizer at 6:01. The Flyers had led since the 18: 21 mark of the opening period on Marty Murray's power-play goal.

The team leader in goals, Selanne didn't reach the 20-goal plateau last season until Feb. 26, during San Jose's 58th game. Selanne scored his 20th Monday night in San Jose's 37th game.

"Great individual effort by Teemu," said Wilson, who then turned his attention again to Cheechoo's late heroics. "In the third period we had a feeling on the bench that it was only a matter of time before we were going to score and it's nice to see our fourth-line guys chip in another huge goal late in the game."

BRIEFLY: The Sharks failed to convert on the power play for a fourth straight game (a combined 0-for-15).